Thomas Carey is co-Principal Catalyst for WINCan and Executive-in-Residence in the British Columbia Association of Institutes and Universities and the Monash University Faculty of Arts
Much of our WINCan work has its roots in the European tradition of Workplace Innovation, where the European Workplace Innovation Network (EUWIN) was a key catalyst in bringing together researchers and managers across Europe. The activity in EUWIN has been on a short hiatus, while some of the principals were establishing Workplace Innovation Europe as a not-for-profit provider of knowledge and training services (and a model for our related activities in WINCan: our thanks to Peter, Rosemary and their colleagues).
We were delighted to see the announcement of “a new takeoff for EUWIN”, including a relaunch of the EUWIN Bulletin and a revitalized Knowledge Bank. We’ve highlighted below a few of their new directions, so that you can see the topics and issues being explored.
Working from Home: Research results from a workplace innovation perspective
The Corona crisis hit hard, at home and at work. Suddenly, employees had to work from home as much as possible whilst their organizations did not have the time to properly prepare for this change. Individuals, teams and supervisors had to reinvent the way they organize their work.
As a centre of expertise in organizational design, Workitects wanted to measure the impact of working from home on workability of jobs in Flanders…We had a number of questions in mind:
How did tasks and job demands change: Is there a higher need for information, is it more difficult to manage the planning of the work?
How did job resources change: Do workers have more or less autonomy to meet these challenges?
What does this mean for workers’ stress and engagement levels?
We received 402 completed questionnaires…seventy per cent of respondents now worked completely from home. Forty-nine per cent of them expressed an increased stress level whilst 39% felt less enthusiastic about their jobs. We set out to discover the reason for this decline in well being at work…
[by Laura Nurski: “As the resident researcher at Workitects, I study the link between organizational design, productivity and employee well-being”]
Leading in Troubled Times: How to Keep Your People Motivated, Engaged & Well
‘Working from home’ is now a fact of life for millions of people, while many others experience ‘social distancing’ in the workplace. Both can lead to a sense of isolation, restricting day-to-day interaction that helps people do their jobs well and creates the feeling of being part of a team.
Yet we’re also seeing a remarkable surge of entrepreneurship and innovation. In our communities and businesses alike people are finding new ways of collaborating and helping each other. Many are beginning to argue that this is transformative and that the post-COVID world won’t be the same as before.
‘Social distancing’ is an unfortunate choice of expression in the current situation; while physical distancing may be essential, we need more social connectedness now than ever…
[by Edwin Van Vlierberghe, Former Vice-President Supply Chain at Bombardier Transportation, Belgium]
At the ‘Skills for industry conference’ in June 2019 Joost Korte, Director General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the European Commission stressed that “Europe needs a skills revolution. Social partners are crucial. Investing in skills development at all stages of life will be essential to leave nobody behind and to make sure we have the skills that will drive innovation and competitiveness.” In my opinion, that does not take us much further….
Developing skills that bring competitive advantage requires investment in training, but also the design of good jobs that can enhance people’s skills and provide wellbeing at work…It is an important intangible asset and an element of what OECD calls ‘Knowledge-Based Capital’, increasingly considered the foundation of modern economies.
Briefly this means: Every policy regarding skills should also include workplace innovation.
[by Frank Pot, European expert in Workplace Innovation and former director of the Work and Employment division of TNO, the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research]
Workplace Innovation for SMEs
Last year the European Commission announced the successful winners of its latest programme to support workplace innovation. The three successful projects each involve transnational consortia of regional agencies with a remit that includes raising awareness of workplace innovation, developing databases of good practice, and funding short pilot projects in SMEs.
EUWIN has been in contact with two of the projects since the outset, and we’re delighted that INNovaSouth and Start at Best have adopted The Fifth Element approach to workplace innovation (see this article from the EUWIN Bulletin). The third Project, RailActivation, focuses on the railway industry and is currently undertaking a review of workplace innovation practice.
All three are currently inviting European SMEs to apply for funding to support short pilot projects. Further details can be found on their project websites.